The invention relates to a method for suspending poultry with its legs from a suspension conveyor. Further, the invention relates to an apparatus for carrying out this method.
In a large number of processing methods for poultry it is common practice for the poultry to be suspended by its legs from the hooks of a suspension conveyor. In such a suspended position tthe poultry is then supplied to several processing machines. Suspending poultry from the hooks from a suspension conveyor nowadays occurs mainly manually. This is a result of the fact that at the moment of suspending the poultry from the suspension conveyor it is still alive and thus is offered to the suspension location in different, non-predictable positions.
It will be realized that manually suspending poultry with its legs from a suspension conveyor is labor-intensive. Further, it is dull and stultifying labor. Moreover, with the present processing velocities of processing machines for poultry the limitations of human capacities are reached, such that more than one operator is required for suspending the poultry from the suspension conveyor, this still further increasing the costs.
In the past, several attempts have been made for automating the suspension of poultry from a suspension conveyor. However, in practice the proposed measures appear to be not or hardly realizable or are so complicated that the application is not attractive.